Fear Spreads Over Food Prices

LONDON — The increase in grain prices is already being felt around the world. In Indonesia, the tofu industry has threatened to strike over rising soybean prices; in Mexico, the cost of corn tortillas is on the rise; and Iran last week witnessed a rare protest over the cost of chicken.
But the economic effects of the sharp rise in agricultural commodities have barely begun. A jump of 30 to 50 percent in benchmark corn, wheat and soybean prices has revived memories of the world’s last food crisis, in 2007-08, and large consumers from Egypt and Morocco to South Korea and Taiwan are bracing for a renewed bout of food inflation.
Marc Sadler, head of agriculture risk management at the World Bank, says: “For sure there is growing concern across the world from developing countries about what this may mean for them.”